Michele Bachmann’s Whole New Hampshire Team Quits Campaign

2012 GOP candidate Michele Bachmann has seen the loss of her entire New Hampshire campaign staff, despite initial denials from the Republican frontrunner that her team had jumped ship.

It appears the main Bachmann campaign was slightly confused about what went down in New Hampshire this week, although Bachmann’s former NH campaign manager Jeff Chidester said there “shouldn’t be” any ambiguity about the mass exodus from the team. When the news initially broke of the staff resignations, Bachmann denied any resignations had occurred and said team members in the state had also refuted the story:

“That is a shocking story to me,” she said. “I don’t know where that came from. We have called staff in New Hampshire to find out where that came from and the staff have said that isn’t true, so I don’t know if this is just a bad story that’s being fed by a different candidate or campaign. I have no idea where this came from, but we’ve made calls and it’s certainly not true.”

In an email, however, Chidester said that the resignation came well in advance of Bachmann’s denial. He explained:

“That information was conveyed to the people that are closest to Michele. If that information was not shared, that is unfortunate.”

Chidester added:

“This is one of the finest group of people I have every had the pleasure of working with. Each one of them is smart, dedicated, and committed to each other. We have not had an opportunity to talk to each other since the story broke, but once we do, we will release a joint statement.”

Chidester and the rest of the former Bachmann staff in New Hampshire have not yet released the joint statement detailing their reasons for abandoning the GOP hopeful’s ailing campaign.